Life During Lockdown: Michael Marckx
I first “met” Michael Marckx by riding in his now-legendary Belgian Waffle Ride cycling event in 2017. I drove straight home and wrote a blog post titled I’ve Seen the Future of Cycling. After that we were introduced in person by San Diego endurance maven Bob Babbitt. Michael was early to the idea that there could be a challenging mass start race with some gravel, pros racing in front and an inclusive and fun energy that makes it ok for anyone to show up and ride. Now the BWR is part of a huge movement of gravel races (BWR includes gravel, pavement, and single track sections) that have taken over competitive cycling in the United States. This year Michael is expanding his portfolio of events (pandemic permitting) to North Carolina and Utah. In addition to his races, he runs marketing at cycling apparel brand Eliel and manages the Coureur Canyon Cycling Team. He lives with his family in the North County of San Diego and shared with me how he’s getting by during the pandemic.
1. Give me some highlights and lowlights from your first two months in lockdown mode
Well, shoot, the lowlights were having to furlough our team at Eliel and shut the factory down, but we quickly pivoted to making Fun Facades, which some call masks. We created a bunch of fun and really high quality masks and did a one-for-one promo where we donated a mask to health care workers for every one we sold. we have not been able to keep up with demand. So, bad turned to good.
Of course, having to postpone BWR SD and possibly Asheville has been incredibly stressful, but the Cedar City event seems like it’s a go no matter what. The City is fiercely behind us hosting it there.
During this time, without a regular schedule at the office, I found myself able to get out on a lot of solo rides. Lots of 300- and a 400-mile week. I feel like I have a great base, but no speed. I haven’t ridden with people in over two months.
Our family has been brought together under one roof and that part has been wonderful. Eating together everyday and doing things we would normally have never done. Our daughter, a sophomore in high school, was away at Stevenson, on a scholarship, so having here around these months before her brother goes off to Fordham has been great.
2. How have you grown personally and professionally during this disruption?
This time has actually taught me to slow down and breathe a little bit more. Enjoy the kids and my wife. Ride a little more. Stress a little less. It is very easy to get caught up in the negative thinking about not being able to host the BWRs, the lost opportunities, the Tripel Crown launch, the lack of funding; but focusing on what I can do for the better has been great. In doing so, I was able to create something with a friend that will be very rewarding…
Sportsgrants Foundation and my company, Creative Disruption, created a national fundraiser for Event Organizers called RIDE2020. We are pretty certain we can’t stop the flood, but if endurance athletes and companies doing business in the endurance space band together, we can at least stop some of the drowning. This is why we created a nationwide Non Event on July 11th, 2020 with the goal to raise $1 million in order to give event organizers on the brink of collapse an opportunity to regroup by delivering grants ranging from $5,000 to $25,000 within two weeks of the Non Event. We will create and award grants as long as funds last.
For more information on RIDE2020 go to: https://sportsgrants.org/ride2020info/
3. Has your relationship with bicycles and your community changed as a result of having no races or group rides on the schedule?
As a denizen of the cycling scene here, it’s been a challenge because normally I would host a Memorial Day Holiday ride with our Coureur/Canyon team and, of course, we would have had a few BWR recon rides and then the actual event on May 3. I’ve been asked by our mayor to get all the local cyclists to stop riding in groups. And while the mainstay group rides don’t exist, there are still some groups I won’t mention who flaunt the mandates and ride in big packs. This was certainly a hot topic locally when surfing was banned and yet these groups were out blocking the streets.
A few of us all went and rode the 140-mile 2020 BWR course on the actual race day but did it at different times. It was interesting to take on that challenge with no support, no one around and the dirt on the course was exceptionally challenging on that day. Super sandy and rutted. It was a crazy day but super fun.
I do look forward to hosting a holiday ride soon. Perhaps 4th of July, but I may be dreaming. We can get 300 riders on these things and the riding is hard and the socializing after is easy!
4. Can bicycles create positive change in the world during a crisis like this?
What we have seen, and I think we aren’t any different than other towns, is a large shift to riding bikes… as a family, as transportation, as actual recreation. As a result, the roads are teeming with new riders or riders returning to the activity after leaving their bike in the rafters for years. Now the local bike shops are crammed with bikes being worked on, and all their inventory is gone. Great news.
In fact, when we first started creating RIDE2020, we thought we should do it for Bike Shops, but then came a flood of articles about how well they are doing. Let’s hope that keeps up. At the same, we were watching all of our friends having to postpone or cancel their events. We realized, this is terrible, all of these event organizers are going to go out of business. This thing we are living through has decimated small businesses everywhere. The business of creating and producing endurance events is no exception. The predicted number of event casualties is projected to be catastrophic:
· 80% of all event organizers will go out of business without support.
· More than $400 million will be lost to charities from event fundraising.
· 40,000 of the estimated 50,000 endurance events in the US will cease to exist.
So, what we hope to do is save these event organizers so that win the other side of this there will be races, ride and experiences for new and old riders alike to plug into. These races give riders something to orient their lives around and inspire them to buy new bikes and new kits and other accessories. With events to shoot for, riders can reach, aspire and grow to do new physical feats and in doing so their lives are enriched in new and meaningful ways. They are healthier, more alive and enjoy greater mental health. These things reverberate through people, their families, their friends and their communities. We want to make sure that positivity blossoms on the other side.
